Absolut Launches Interactive Music-Making Machines Online

Did you hear about the monkey who recently controlled a Japanese robot’s movement with her mind? Pretty ridiculous. Now you too can lord over electronic devices via the internet, thanks to a project called ABSOLUT Machines (put together by Sweden’s notorious vodka mavens).

ABSOLUT Quartet was developed by M.I.T. alums Jeff Lieberman and Dan Paluska (whose Fotron2000 was used to make the cover of The Juan Maclean’s Less Than Human album). Their Mouse Trap-esque sculpture is comprised of a marimba played by rubber balls that are shot out of small cannons. A second component is made up of spinning wine glasses played by robotic fingers (just how you did it as a kid). Online users provide melodies via a small onscreen keyboard, which the machine then interprets into three-minute songs.

Meanwhile, Swedish design studio Teenage Engineering came up with ABSOLUT Choir, a series of 10 adorable wooden characters of different shapes and sizes that can belt out notes in different registers and make-up their songs. Participants input words, which then impact the songs’ composition and lyrics.

Check out the projects, which go live January 31st, and register for some alone time with the machines.

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